Intuition
by xwordsaremyweaknessx
Summary: Nikki arrives at a crime scene but soon discovers all is not as it first seems
1. Chapter 1

Nikki woke with a start but quickly realised the familiar sound of her phone buzzing on the bedside table. 4.48 the time read on the screen that lit up her face in the pitch black room. She groaned as she pushed her blonde hair off of her face and replied to the message that she was on her way before getting out of bed and getting ready for another day. She never minded being on call but on a cold morning when she was comfortable in bed, she did find it difficult to get up and ready and out quickly but after all these years she had learnt that it was like ripping a plaster off; the quicker you do it, the better it feels.

On the drive to the crime scene Nikki always liked to play a little game with herself of guess the crime before she saw the body or any evidence. 9 times out of 10 she guessed something right. 'Married couple...one murdered the other, blood everywhere' was this mornings guess. As she approached the police cordon the sun was beginning to rise and the pathologist breathed a sigh of relief, working on a crime scene in the dark, even with specialist lighting was always difficult and you could be guaranteed to miss something. Nikki flashed her pass to the policeman holding a clipboard and went to join Jack who was already in his soco suit and waiting for her.

"What time do you call this, part timer?!" Jack joked, banter between the colleagues was the only thing that got them through each case filled with death and crime and sadness.

"You're telling me you haven't just arrived?" Nikki shot back whilst changing into her white suit.

"No, been here ages, some of us don't need beauty sleep"

"Oh, I did wonder why you look like that...and now I know" Nikki replied with a smile as she made her way inside the house, leaving Jack struggling for an answer.

From the outside it looked like a normal terraced house, flowers in the front garden, nicely mowed lawn and freshly painted exterior of the property. But within two steps of being inside the front door the pair realised this was anything but a normal house. The blood started in the hall and not just traces of blood, more like puddles of it. They followed the trail that led to the kitchen where a woman was sat slumped against the cupboards. There was so much blood on her and surrounding her Nikki didn't even know where to begin. Her train of thought was interrupted by a man being taken out of the house cuffed by two uniform officers.

"Husband" Jack answered Nikki's non verbal question.

"Bingo" she replied.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, nothing" she quickly tried to cover. Although she and Jack got on well and did always manage to make light of serious situations, the guess the crime scene game was something she used to share with Harry and she wasn't sure if Jack wouldn't get it or if she just didn't want to talk about her former colleague. "Shall we get started then?"

"Well that was nice and easy" Jack said pointing to something, Nikki's gaze following the direction of his finger.

"Murder weapon" Nikki replied as she caught sight of the kitchen knife covered in blood next to the victim.

As Jack bagged the knife a short, rather plump man entered the room. "DI Sandwell...Mike"

"Nikki Alexander and Jack Hodgson from the Lyell"

"According to her husband, John, this is Susan Carmichael, aged 47" the detective informed the team as he read from his notes. "This should be a nice quick one, Mr Carmichael has just confessed to murder"

"Right" Nikki was suspicious, they never confess this quickly. "We'll finish up here and get her back to the Lyell where we'll carry out the post morterm"

"Is that necessary, we can see how she died and we have arrested our killer?"

"I don't know how long you've been in this job or how many murder scenes you've attended but you never take things as they first seem" Nikki's back was immediately up and Jack took a deep breath, knowing when she started, she wasn't stopping. "We can see she has been stabbed and she has lost a lot of blood, we have recovered the knife but that doesn't mean one of these stab wounds were the cause of death, when we have her clothes off we will be able to see if there are any other injuries, we need to see if there is anything unusual in her toxicology and the first thing forensics will do is check the knife for prints. Mr Carmichael may have confessed but in my experience when the confess that quick and they are in that state, there is every possibility they are in shock and they aren't the actual perpetrator"

"I.." was all the detective managed before Nikki cut him off.

"You may be happy to have an open and shut case but this is not just another case, not just another body, we need to find out...actually you need to find out if there's any other family and for their sakes and for the sake of this poor woman we need to find out every last detail about what went on her tonight and get justice for her. I do not like standing up in court, which I will have to do and not being able to give a full and frank account of the scene and the investigations we carried out and I do not wish to go home knowing I did not do my job to the best I could. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a body to examine"

Jack tried to hide his snigger as he guided the shell shocked detective away from Nikki. "You alright?" he asked.

Mike swallowed hard. "Fine"

"You haven't been doing this long have you?" Jack figured.

"Day one. Fast track. This is my first murder" and suddenly it was all clear.

"Ah. I'd give her a wide berth today" Jack advised and the detective nodded in agreement and with that Nikki appeared from the house.

"Right I'm done here and to answer your questions I believe time of death was no more than three hours ago. It is likely that the cause of death was one of the stab wounds and in a few hours after the PM I will be able to tell you exactly which one. It is likely she was stabbed in the hall first and made her own way into the kitchen as there are no drag marks and no bruising on her arms or wrists and she was then stabbed again once in the kitchen again from the amount of blood. Jack, see you back at the Lyell. Detective"

"She's good" Jack admitted whilst Mike stood awestruck.

"She's a formidable woman" the detective finally managed to speak.

"Yeah, maybe don't tell her that" the forensic advised.

"Why, will she be angry? I'm not trying to come on to her or anything, I haven't even thought of it, she's just so..."

Jack interrupted "No the compliment will go to her head and we'll never live it down. Ahh my friend, you have a lot to learn"


	2. Chapter 2

"Is it safe to come in?" Jack spoke quietly, poking his head round the door of Nikki's office. She shot him a look. "Alright, sorry, but you were pretty hard on that detective"

"Yes I know, I don't know what came over me, I didn't mean to be that rude but people like him are the reason these victims don't get the justice they deserve" she got very passionate again.

"Nikki"

"What?"

"Breathe. Just breathe. It's his first day off a fast track, cut him some slack eh? Show him the ropes, work with him, don't alienate him. You don't want to be the reason he quits his career before it's even begun."

Nikki knew what Jack was saying was right but she just couldn't seem to let it go. "Are you alright?" he asked, concerned for his friend.

"Absolutely" she replied with as much conviction as she could muster. She felt out of sorts but didn't know why.

"Good morning" Clarissa called as she wheeled into the lab as speed.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Jack questioned.

"Why aren't you?" she shot back. "It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, I get to spend another day with you two...three" she acknowledged Thomas as he entered the room.

"We were on call...horrific murder" Jack explained.

"Oh good" Clarissa replied, much to the teams horror.

"I didn't mean good someone is dead, I just mean I like to be busy that's all" she defended herself before quickly leaving her team.

"Are you two alright?" Thomas asked, more concerned for his, not only colleagues but friends.

"Will everyone stop asking me that, I'm fine" Nikki snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a post mortem to carry out" and with that she was gone.

"Don't ask, she bit the SIO's head off at the scene, poor guy, I thought he was going to cry"

Nikki set the voice recorder to on and began examining the body.

"This is the body of Susan Carmichael, aged 47 years as confirmed by her husband. The victim appears to be a well nourished female with a total of 62 stab wounds to her legs, arms and upper torso. There is no bruising to the wrists or arms and there are no abrasions to the hands"

"Would you expect bruising or abrasions?" Mike asked from the viewing gallery.

"A lack of bruising suggests she wasn't dragged from one place to another, she wasn't held down and no abrasions mean there are no defence wounds. Whatever happened to her, she didn't try to defend herself" The last statement was met with a gasp from the detective.

"I want a full tox report" Nikki prompted for the mortuary assistant to take bloods as she continued her examination. "The stab wounds to her arms and legs appear to be flesh wounds but there are deeper lacerations to the chest, penetrating her sternum, the peritoneal cavity and right through the heart. The wounds are consistent with the knife found at the scene" She continued her examination when she was taken aback "Holy shit, get Thomas" she ordered one of the assistants.

Seconds later Thomas joined Nikki in the cutting room. "What have you found?"

"Take a deep breath" Nikki warned before directing his attention to her genital area.

"Jesus" he exclaimed with the same horror his colleague did only moments earlier.

"What is it?" Mike enquired from the gallery.

"Multiple deep lacerations to the genital area which would have resulted in massive blood loss" Thomas explained whilst still examining the body.

"Is that the cause of death?"

"No, the stab wound to the heart is most certainly the cause of death, some of these wounds are partially healed, suggesting they had been carried out over a number of days. This woman had been tortured before being eventually brutally murdered"


	3. Chapter 3

The team gathered in the meeting room to share their initial findings. Jack went first.

"So do you want the good news or the bad?"

"Definitely bad...then the good will cheer us up" Clarissa piped up.

"Ok, well the good news is that the knife is covered in prints. The bad news is that none of those prints belong to John Carmichael"

"What?!" Nikki exclaimed.

"He was wearing gloves?" The detective offered, still determined to prove this man was guilty.

"Possible, not likely" Nikki replied.

"Why?" the detective questioned.

"No gloves were found at the scene or in any of the bins surrounding the property"

"The only other set of prints on the knife was that of Mrs Carmichael, possibly trying to pull the knife out of herself" Jack continued to share his findings. "And from the state the husband was in, disposing of gloves probably wasn't high on his list of priorities"

"You aren't actually fooled by that act are you?" Mike asked "That's what they do, cry and shake to make you feel sorry for them. Besides, he did confess"

"Has he said anything?" Clarissa asked, always the voice of reason.

"Can't get any sense out of him"

This time Thomas stepped in "Have you accessed his medical records? Is there a history of mental health issues? Have you contacted a forensic psychologist?"

"Well, no. He's a murderer, they're all psychos". The team were taken aback and suddenly Jack understood Nikki's frustrations entirely.

"Let's start again shall we" Jack spoke as he made his way to the screen on the wall. "Mr Carmichael's clothes were covered in blood, as you'd expect, but it's not a spray pattern consistent with him stabbing her, it's more smeared across his shirt as if he was cradling her. Obviously his prints are all over the house, he lived there and he was at the scene when we arrived. The front door was open when uniform arrived but no signs of forced entry"

"So her husband let himself in, to his own house?" Mike started again.

"You need to gain some clarity and stop this fixation on the husband" Thomas began to get angry. "If he did do it then we will prove it but we will not make up evidence that does not exist. It is our job to be objective, to not form an opinion, to deal in the facts, which my team are trying to do. Sorry Jack, please continue"

Jack smirked and continued to talk "Is it possible that the husband comes home, opens the door, finds his wife dead and blames himself? Why would he go home to kill his wife but leave the front door open for the world to see him stabbing her over and over, it just doesn't make sense, especially as we found no traces of blood outside the property or on the door handle or frame, suggesting anyone left the house"

The team looked baffled. Nikki didn't know why but she could feel that Mr Carmichael did not kill his own wife. It wasn't a feeling she could share with her team, as Thomas had just said they dealt in facts and evidence, not feelings, but she had been doing this job for a lifetime, there wasn't much she hadn't seen. A large part of intuition was experience and very rarely was her intuition wrong, she just needed the evidence to prove it.

"Anything from the post mortem?" Mike asked Nikki.

"She has suffered 62 stab wounds to her arms, legs, torso and chest. The cause of death is the stab wound to the heart. Would have caused massive blood loss and death would have been almost instantaneous. She has several deep lacerations to her genitalia, these would have also caused massive blood loss and would have been extremely painful but she could have survived on these, which all suggests that she was tortured before she died. Her tox report came back clear, no alcohol, no drugs, prescription or otherwise. The only other important thing here is the fact that she was pregnant, only very early days, maybe 6 weeks".

"So was the baby the husband's? If it wasn't that could be motive for murder"

"I've taken a DNA sample from the foetus, we're just waiting for the results, should be in this afternoon".

"Call me as soon as you know" Mike ordered as he left the room.

"Nikki" Jack began "I take it all back, first day or not, he's just an asshole"


End file.
